Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 18:17

"And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army unto Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller`s field." — 2 Kings 18:17 (ASV)

And the king of Assyria sent ... — Apparently in careless violation of his word, as Josephus states.

Tartan. — Rather, the commander-in-chief; called in Assyrian tur-ta-nu, a word of Sumerian origin, imitated in the Hebrew tartân here and in Isaiah 20:1.

Rabsaris and Rab-shaken. — Two other official titles. The Rabsaris has not been identified on the Assyrian monuments. The Hebrew word suggests “chief eunuch,” or “courtier” (Jeremiah 39:3).

Such an official would accompany the tartan as a scribe. The term Rab-shakeh, as a Hebrew expression, signifies “chief cup-bearer,” but it is really only a Hebraized form of the Assyrian title rab-sak, “chief officer,” applied to superior military commanders or staff officers.

In Isaiah 36:2 only the Rabshakeh is mentioned; in 2 Chronicles 33:9 the three foreign titles are naturally displaced by the general expression, his servants.

And they went up and came — that is, the Assyrian army corps under the tartan, etc.

And when they were come up, they came. — Literally, as before, And they went up and came. This is omitted in the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, and Arabic, but the phrase refers this time especially to the three principals, who came within speaking distance of the walls.

The conduit ... field. —Isaiah 7:3. The upper pool (called Gihon in 1 Kings 1:33), located on the highway of the fuller’s field (that is, the Joppa road, on the west side of the city), is different from the upper pool in the Tyropoeon.

This upper pool in the Tyropoeon is also called the artificial pool (Nehemiah 3:16) and the old pool (Isaiah 22:11).

Below this latter pool, a pool was dug in Hezekiah’s time, called in Isaiah 22:9 the lower pool, and in Nehemiah 3:15 the pool of Siloah.